State v. Blatnik

478 N.E.2d 1016, 17 Ohio App. 3d 201, 17 Ohio B. 391, 1984 Ohio App. LEXIS 12480
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 20, 1984
DocketOT-84-5
StatusPublished
Cited by230 cases

This text of 478 N.E.2d 1016 (State v. Blatnik) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State v. Blatnik, 478 N.E.2d 1016, 17 Ohio App. 3d 201, 17 Ohio B. 391, 1984 Ohio App. LEXIS 12480 (Ohio Ct. App. 1984).

Opinions

Douglas, J.

This matter is before the court on appeal from judgment of the Port Clinton Municipal Court. Appellant, Spencer D. Blatnik, pled guilty to charges that he had violated R.C. 4511.19(A)(1) and 4507.02. The trial court accepted appellant’s guilty pleas to both charges and entered a finding of guilty against appellant on said charges. When imposing sentence upon appellant, the trial court sentenced him to one year imprisonment for his violation of R.C. 4511.19(A)(1) and to six months imprisonment for his violation of R.C. 4507.02. The trial court further ordered that appellant’s sentences were to be served consecutively, thus constituting an aggregate term of imprisonment of eighteen months. Additionally, the trial court ordered that appellant serve the eighteen-month aggregate imprisonment term in the Ohio State Penitentiary.

Subsequent to sentencing, appellant filed a motion to withdraw his guilty pleas based on the contention that appellant had received erroneous advice from counsel regarding his sentence. The trial court denied appellant’s motion to withdraw his guilty plea.

Appellant now appeals from his judgment and sentence and from the trial court’s denial of his motion to withdraw his guilty plea. For our review, appellant asserts the following two assignments of error:

“1. The Trial Court erred in sentencing the Defendant to the Ohio State Penitentiary for the offenses of OMVI (O.R.C. Section 4511.19(A)(1)) and No Operator’s License (O.R.C. Section 4507.02).
“2. The Trial Court abused its discretion and erred in not allowing the Defendant to withdraw his guilty pleas after sentencing where Defendant had not been advised prior to sentencing that the Court would or could impose imprisonment in the Ohio State Penitentiary, and where no hearing on the motion to withdraw the pleas was had.”

Initially, we address appellant’s second assignment of error, wherein appellant claims that the trial court erred in refusing to permit him to withdraw his guilty pleas. A court may set aside a judgment of conviction and permit a defendant to withdraw a guilty plea after imposition of sentence only to correct a manifest injustice. Crim. R. 32.1; State v. Smith (1977), 49 Ohio St. 2d 261, 264 [3 O.O.3d 402]; State v. Peterseim (1980), 68 Ohio App. 2d 211, 213 [22 O.O.3d 341], The burden of establishing the existence of a manifest injustice is upon the individual seeking vacation of the plea. Smith, swpra, paragraph one of the syllabus. A post-sentence motion to vacate a guilty plea is addressed to the sound discretion of the trial court, id. at paragraph two of the syllabus, and an appellate court’s review of a trial court’s denial of a post-sentence motion to withdraw a guilty plea is limited to a determination of whether the trial court abused its discretion. 1 Peterseim, supra, at 214.

“What constitutes an abuse of discretion with respect to denying a motion *203 to withdraw a guilty plea necessarily is variable with the facts and circumstances involved.” State v. Walton (1981), 2 Ohio App. 3d 117, 119. We recognize, however, that if a plea of guilty could be retracted with ease after sentence had been imposed, “ ‘the accused might be encouraged to plead guilty to test the weight of potential punishment, and withdraw the plea if the sentence were unexpectedly severe. ***>)> (cations omitted.) Peterseim, supra, at 213. See Smith, supra, at 264.

Appellant filed an attendant affidavit together with his motion requesting post-sentence withdrawal of his guilty plea in the trial court. In his affidavit, appellant attests that he was informed by his former counsel at the time of entering his guilty pleas that he would be required to undergo an alcoholic rehabilitation program and to serve a short term of imprisonment. Appellant further states that at no time was he informed, either by his former or his latter counsel, that his imprisonment would or could be served in the state penitentiary. Additionally, appellant states that his latter counsel informed him at his sentencing hearing that the maximum sentence which he would receive was eighteen months servable in the county detention facility. Appellant attests that if he had known that his imprisonment would be served in the penitentiary, he would not have entered a guilty plea, or would have withdrawn his guilty plea prior to sentencing. Appellee-state has not refuted or put in issue any of appellant’s attestations contained in his affidavit.

A post-sentence withdrawal motion is permitted only in extraordinary cases, Smith, supra, at 264, and only when necessary to correct a “manifest injustice.” See Annotation, Withdrawal of Plea of Guilty or Nolo Contendere, After Sentence, Under Rule 32(d) of Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure (1971), 9 A.L.R. Fed. 309, 323, Section 5, for an elaboration upon the meaning and application of this standard. Although difficult to precisely define, suffice it to say that an overwhelming authority of case law states that manifest injustice, as contemplated by the rule, does not, ipso facto result from counsel’s erroneous advice concerning the sentence that will be imposed. United States v. Scharf (C.A.8, 1978), 568 F. 2d 106, 107-108; Masciola v. United States (C.A.3, 1972), 469 F. 2d 1057, 1059; United States v. Becklean (C.A.8, 1979), 598 F. 2d 1122, 1125, cer-tiorari denied (1979), 444 U.S. 864; Smith v. United States (C.A.D.C. 1963), 324 F. 2d 436, 440, certiorari denied (1964), 376 U.S. 957; Georges v. United States (C.A.5, 1959), 262 F. 2d 426, 430; United States v. Parrino (C.A.2, 1954), 212 F. 2d 919, 921, certiorari denied (1954), 348 U.S. 840.

There is also authority which suggests that under certain circumstances, erroneous advice of counsel regarding the sentence which is to be imposed may result in manifest injustice. In Becklean, supra, the Eighth Circuit stated that if a guilty plea is entered solely because of erroneous advice, of if the erroneous advice plays a substantial part of inducement for the guilty plea, manifest injustice may result. Becklean, supra, at 1125. Also, it has been held that if a guilty plea is entered pursuant to counsel’s representation, as opposed to counsel’s likely prediction, that such a plea would result in a lesser sentence than the sentence actually received, it is necessary to permit post-sentence withdrawal of the guilty plea in order to prevent manifest injustice. United States v. Hawthorne (C.A. 3, 1974), 502 F.2d 1183, certiorari denied (1976), 429 U.S. 894. In this regard, the Cuyahoga County Court of Appeals, in State v. Longo (1982), 4 Ohio App. 3d 136, 140, stated that when:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
478 N.E.2d 1016, 17 Ohio App. 3d 201, 17 Ohio B. 391, 1984 Ohio App. LEXIS 12480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-v-blatnik-ohioctapp-1984.